Charters and Conferences during World War II - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Charters and Conferences during World War II. Unlike WW I there was no single peace conference. Instead, there were a series of charters, conferences, understandings, treaties and agreements during and after WW II. . US attitude in 1939-1940.

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Churchill and Roosevelt also consented to the USSR setting up puppet communist governments in:

Poland

Czechoslovakia

The Baltic States

Romania, and other Eastern European States

This is the beginning of misunderstandings which sadly result in the loss of freedom by these countries for the next fifty years. This is the genesis of the Cold War. FDR trusted Stalin to be reasonable. Even Churchill seemed to let his guard down.

Yet, Stalin couldn’t understand that the USSR wanted Security. They had suffered three wars in the first part of the 20th century.

Churchill had always insisted that individual Germans who had committed crimes should have a trial at the place they had committed them.

Anyway, Churchill stormed out of the dinner when Stalin, perhaps just teasingly, suggested that 100,000 German Staff officers should be executed after the war. Roosevelt, probably trying to lighten the mood, said that he thought that 49,000 would do!

Winston Churchill was the product of the 19th century. Hated totalitarianism and Stalin.

It was agreed to organize the communist Republic of Poland that had been installed by the Soviet Union "on a broader democratic basis."

Poland would receive territorial compensation in the West from Germany. (USSR later dominated that!)

Churchill alone pushed for free elections in Poland. The British leader pointed out that the UK "could never be content with any solution that did not leave Poland a free and independent state". Stalin pledged to permit free elections in Poland, but forestalled ever honoring that promise. Stalin was believed.

Citizens of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia were to be handed over to their respective countries, regardless of their consent. (Very sinister and cruel).

The Big Three further agreed that democracies would be established, all liberated European and former Axis satellite countries would hold free elections and that order would be restored

This was a principle of the Atlantic Charter – the right of all peoples to choose through free elections the Governments responsive to the will of the people" and to "facilitate where necessary the holding of such elections.”

The Declaration contained no mechanisms for the enforcement of its principles. “Happy happy talk.”

The Western Powers soon realized that Stalin would not honor his free elections promise regarding Poland. After receiving considerable criticism in London following Yalta regarding the atrocities committed in Poland by Soviet troops, Churchill wrote Roosevelt a desperate letter referencing the wholesale deportations and liquidations of opposition Poles by the Soviets. Roosevelt, however, maintained his confidence in Stalin, reasoning that Stalin's early priesthood training had "entered into his nature of the way in which a Christian gentleman should behave.”

Churchill defended his actions at Yalta in a three-day Parliament army debate starting February 27, 1945, which ended in a vote of confidence. During the debate, many MPs openly criticized Churchill and passionately voiced loyalty to Britain's Polish allies and expressed deep reservations about Yalta.[ Moreover, 25 of these MPs risked their careers to draft an amendment protesting against Britain's tacit acceptance of Poland's domination by the Soviet Union.

On March 1, Roosevelt assured Congress that "I come from the Crimea with a firm belief that we have made a start on the road to a world of peace.“ By March 21, Roosevelt's Ambassador to the USSR Averell Harriman cabled Roosevelt that "we must come clearly to realize that the Soviet program is the establishment of totalitarianism, ending personal liberty and democracy as we know it." Two days later, Roosevelt began to admit that his view of Stalin had been excessively optimistic and that "Averell is right."

When the Second World War ended, a Communist government was installed in Poland. Most Poles felt betrayed by their wartime allies. Many Polish soldiers refused to return to Poland. Britain permitted them to remain in Britain.

Was held at Potsdam, occupied Germany, from July 16 to August 2, 1945.

Germany had already surrendered 8th May.

Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The three nations were represented Joseph Stalin, initially Prime Minister Winston Churchill and later, Prime Minister Clement Attlee and President Harry S. Truman.